F-35 opponents deliver fudge to Vermont senator's office

Protesters seize on newspaper's allegations of corruption

After the April 14 Boston Globe report that the Pentagon's scoring process was fudged in Burlington's favor, F-35 opponents decided to make a delivery to Vermont's senior Sen. Patrick Leahy on Wednesday.

Carmine Sargent or "Gramma" took a box of fudge to his office, calling it "Deliberately Fudged Fudge."

Gramma is the newest face of the anti-F-35 movement. She's troubled that the new fighter jet might be based in her neighborhood.

She and other F-35 opponents, including Ben and Jerry's co-founder, Ben Cohen, have a special message for Leahy.

"This is not a case of defending our country, this is outright corruption," said Cohen at a news conference.

They're calling for an independent investigation into the allegations.

"We need to question the military officials and political officials under oath and if fudging is found to be correct, as reported by the Boston Globe, then the people who fudged need to be removed from authority," said James Marc Leas of the Stop the F-35 Coalition.

Leahy's representative declined further comment on the claims, though earlier this month, the senator supported the Air Force Selection process.

Gen. Steven Cray, commander of the Vermont National Guard, also said earlier this month -- and affirmed Wednesday-- that he believes the Air Force properly picked Burlington as a possible F-35 base.

Late Wednesday, the Air Force released an official statement in response to the Boston Globe article. It said that the Air Force did not make its decision based on old data and that "the analysis from the site survey shows the Burlington Air Guard station would have made the F-35 candidate list even with the revisions."

The statement goes on to say the Air Force is still analyzing data and has not yet made a final basing decision.

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